MARTINEZ CRUSHES FOE IN BRAWL 2 HEADLINER

By Patrick Lujan

Guam heavyweight champion Roque Martinez had an easy night at the office as the headliner of Brawl 2 Friday night at the Dusit Thani Resort Guam in Tumon.

Six years since he last fought in front of the home crowd, the 36-year-old Martinez didn’t disappoint a well-dressed packed crowd in the five-star ballroom. It had been 17 months since his last competitive action where he finished off his UFC contract losing three close battles.

This time, Martinez faced a much smaller opponent with far less experience in Japan’s Yuichi Yokoyama. The outcome of the fight was virtually known upon signing the contract as any MMA average fan knew what was going to happen – a Martinez domination.

The Guam champ could’ve finished the fight at his discretion, however, gave his opponent numerous chances to get on his feet to keep the action going. In fact, the fight was called just about a minute into the fight after Martinez’s body kick to the downed opponent caused the referee to stop it. Despite calling the fight, the crowd wasn’t fulfilled and a recovered Yokoyama was ok to continue – which it did to all’s delight.

It was just a matter of moments as Martinez eventually took the fight to the ground and easily finished it with a rear naked choke midway through the 10-minute first round.

Brawl Featherweight Crown

In its first-ever promotion title fight, Japan’s Kohei Maeda displayed a well-rounded performance to take out Guam’s Joey Crisostomo for the Brawl featherweight belt.

Maeda and Crisostomo jockeyed for position along the fence for major parts of the fight, both getting a couple of shots in on one another, until Maeda landed a perfect knee to the head while Crisostomo was ascending from the ground position. Maeda took advantage of the dazed Crisostomo and went in to wrap up the rear naked choke for the title in his first fight ever outside of Japan.

“I am Japan. I love you,” said an exuberant Maeda to the local crowd. “I love your country. You are very beautiful people.”

Maeda was to take on Seay Camacho, however, a late injury pulled Camacho off the card and Crisostomo stepped in as a replacement. It is Crisostomo’s fifth straight loss as he falls to 2-6 as a pro.

Other Fights

• The popular Kelvin Fitial from Saipan made a successful return in front of the Guam crowd by smashing Ben Schneider out of Wales with straight stand-up bombs as Schneider succumbed in the fetal position before the referee stopped the barrage just a few minutes in. ‘The Big Hit’ stopped a five-fight losing streak while Schneider got a cool trip to Guam to run his record to 3-26 in the loss.
• Wrestler Micah Lopez got caught with a perfect knee to the face by Korea Top Team’s Rae Eun Lee that instantly dropped Lopez to end the fight. It was a well-evened match up to that point.
• The brawl of the night went to Zakaria Krapf from Maryland and KTT’s Min Sung Kang. Krapf was throwing the heavy leather in the early going, but Kang stayed with it and endured the blows before steadily peppering and eventually blooded Krapf. In the long 10-minute opening round, both fighters traded heavy blows before Kang had just enough to finish Krapf before the bell sounded.
• Promising young fighter Shelby Meeks made a successful debut. Meeks controlled his fight with local muay thai fighter Marley Manabat before taking his opponent out via TKO.

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